"Fucking hell!" I spat out as I felt myself becoming real! It was an experience I would never want to experience ever again, being unreal in the sense that you do not exist. But if I am alive, how could I exist, you will ask. That is the most wierd and fucked up experience I will ever experience and it is not pleasant!
I was a normal human...once. You know, the kind of person who wakes up, goes to work, eats, sleeps, and does the whole routine without ever thinking about whether or not they truly belong. Until now. Now, I've been flung into something far worse than any nightmare I could've imagined.
I blinked, and the world around me shifted. It wasn't just physical reality; everything felt wrong—alien, like something was off. The air felt dense, heavier. The ground beneath me vibrated with an unnatural pulse. And the worst part? I could see it. I could see the threads of existence unraveling, I could feel the tethers of reality being stretched to their breaking point. The universe itself was unstable.
I took a step forward, my breath shallow as I struggled to process what was happening. A crack in the very fabric of reality, and I—no, something about me—was part of it. How had I gone from a regular guy to… this? I should have died, vanished into nothing. But here I was, alive, more aware than I'd ever been before, and it was horrifying.
"Is this what he sees?" I asked myself as I forcibly calmed myself down. Yeah, I could do that, my very existence was in my perfect control. Everything about me was in perfect sync so if I wanted to calm down, all I needed to do was to calm down, as easy as that. Now, with a more rational mind, I looked around me, letting reality melt all around me as my sight, no, all my senses could now peer into existence itself! It was both exhilirating and kind of terrifying, but I attribute that last part as my human side peeking.
"Is this why Pre-Retcon Beyonder needed to be nerfed?" I asked myself in wonder. I felt like reality and unreality were just little pieces I could manipulate, like putting together and apart a Lego construct. And yes, I was currently in possession of the Beyonder's power, the version that is everyone's favorite, Pre Retcon Beyonder.
I forced my senses which had spread out cosmically to return back to my singular form, the form I had taken based out of my previous self's body, a hollow vessel I made to contain my meta self. I felt myself becoming in tune with reality, not feeling like I would break it apart by just existing, saw it healing itself which was fascinating to which, till I saw myself standing in side of a building, which seemed empty. That would be the assumption if my eyes did not see the meta physical space beyond this reality. The building was infested with wraith like creatures, all eyeing me with fear and greed.
"Hello there," I greeted them, I was raised to be polite, even to creatures that seemed ready to devour me whole.
The wraith-like creatures shifted in the shadows, their forms flickering like poorly constructed illusions, as though they could barely hold themselves together. Their hollow, black eyes focused on me with a strange hunger, and I could feel their fear mingling with their greed. The aura around them was...wrong. Unnatural, like they were plucked from a nightmare that shouldn't exist.
They didn't respond to my greeting. They didn't need to. These things couldn't comprehend politeness, or words, or even basic human concepts. They were predators, drawn to the breach in reality that I had caused, and now, I was the prize.
I could see it in their eyes—they were waiting for me to make the first move. They could feel my power, like a static charge in the air. They were calculating.
I tilted my head, feeling the pulse of the universe itself course through my veins. The threads of reality were mine to toy with. If I wanted to, I could make the ground swallow them whole or have their very existence unravel like a badly written story. But… I wasn't here for that. Not yet.
"I'm not here to kill you," I said with a shrug, crossing my arms. "But don't think I won't if you make me."
The creatures hesitated. There was a faint ripple in the air, a shift in their collective energy, as if they were weighing their options. They were aware of me now, aware that something beyond their comprehension was standing in front of them. And that made them hesitant, which… frankly, I wasn't used to.
One of the wraiths stepped forward, its form becoming more solid, though still a distortion in space. It growled low, the sound like scraping metal mixed with the screams of the lost. "You… are not of this world."
"No kidding," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "I just got here, and this is the first thing I run into? How wonderful."
I could feel their desire to tear me apart, their instincts screaming at them to do so, but none of them moved. They knew better. They could sense it—I was not some ordinary fool, lost in the wrong dimension. No, I was something that even they, in their twisted hunger, didn't want to touch.
The power thrummed within me, and for a brief moment, I allowed myself to feel its full weight, letting the reality of the situation press in on me. These creatures—these abominations—were nothing in the grand scheme of things. Nothing.
I could feel the threads of existence around them, thin and fragile, waiting to snap. I could snip them away with a thought, but I didn't. Instead, I focused on them. I felt their essence, their desperation to feed, to devour whatever they could latch onto. It wasn't even hatred. It was more like a compulsion, something primal and deeply ingrained.
"You want something," I said, studying them with detached curiosity. "But you're not going to get it from me."
The lead wraith growled again, its hunger more pronounced now. I could see its form begin to shift, preparing to strike.
I sighed, snapping my fingers.
Instantly, the building around us froze—time itself seemed to freeze in place, the wraiths caught mid-movement, their bodies suspended in the air like statues. Their eyes, still burning with hunger, stared at me, but they could do nothing. Not yet.
I stepped closer, examining them as if they were insects caught in a jar. "You know, I could just let you rot here. But there's something interesting about you. I'll give you a choice. Leave this place, go back to wherever it is you came from, or…" I glanced over my shoulder at the broken reality around me, the ripples in space. "Or, I'll turn this whole world into your feeding ground. Every. Last. One. Of. You."
They didn't respond, but I could feel their fear spike. They knew I wasn't bluffing.
"Well, I'm waiting."
After a long, tense silence, the wraiths began to fade, their bodies dissipating like smoke on the wind. The hunger in their eyes never left, but they were no longer a threat to me.
I exhaled sharply, allowing the reality around me to shift back to normal. The building no longer felt infected. It wasn't clean, but it was no longer teeming with malevolent creatures.
I sighed with the "effort" I just pulled before deciding to walk out of the building. I knew what those wraiths were, the twisted malformed souls of souls that haven't let go of their own lingering regrets or pain. They were lost, wandering through the cracks in the universe, feeding on the remnants of emotions and memories they could no longer process. And now, I had sent them back into the abyss they came from, whether they liked it or not. It wasn't a heroic victory, though. More like an inconvenient cleanup.
I shook my head, feeling the weight of the power settling inside me. It was strange, almost intoxicating, but in a way that reminded me of a drug you can't escape. The more I used it, the more I could feel it warping my thoughts, my sense of right and wrong, bending everything around me until I was no longer sure where the boundaries were. Was I still human? Or had I become something else? Something more.
I stepped into the streets of Los Angeles and took a deep breath in for what I saw was not something I liked. The spiritual world of Los Angeles was like a giant light bulb light in the dark sky. It's light was bright and thus, attract beings who like the dark. The city itself was alive, I could feel it trying to look at me and failing miserably at that. It was powerful in its own right but not there yet for me to take notice it. Sure, it was the place where people lived, but beneath its bustling surface, Los Angeles was something else entirely. The city, in a sense, was aware. Not in the way humans were, not in a sentient sense, but it had a pulse, a heartbeat, something that resonated deep within the layers of existence. The streets, the buildings, the very air seemed to hum with something more—something ancient and untamed.
But this awareness... it was weak, tentative. It wasn't something I had to fear, at least not yet. It was like a child trying to grasp at something far beyond its reach. As I walked through the streets, I could feel the city's attempts to "look" at me, to examine me, but it was clumsy. Like a blind man reaching for an object he couldn't comprehend.
Still, I was aware enough to know that if this place was alive, it was fighting something it didn't understand. And that something? That was a problem.
The more I focused, the more I could sense the forces around me, pulsing beneath the layers of the world I could see. Shadowy figures, lurking just outside of the corner of my vision. They were drawn to the city's light, feeding on the energy that emanated from it. These were the types of beings I had already encountered—wraith-like, lost, twisted by their own need and desires. But here, there were more of them, hidden in the cracks, waiting for the city's fragile pulse to falter. I could feel them watching me, as if I was the one thing that had piqued their interest.
"Great," I muttered under my breath. "Just what I needed."